Yesterday Mark and I spent the day in San Diego celebrating my birthday. And by spent the day in San Diego, I mean we lazed around all morning and then fell back to sleep until 12pm (ooooh birthday, you are too good to me!) When we woke up, we took some time looking for a place to dock the T@B while we explore San Diego - which then turned into an hour and a half annoyance when I found out even though the campground reviews online said $25 a night, they were all $45+ a night. I promised myself I wouldnt call my dad to get him to hook us up with a free Holiday Inn room anymore, but it was my birthday, and my dad is always happy to share his abundance of Holiday Inn points on my birthday. So right now Im in a luxurious bed with luxurious pillows and blankets and woo hoo! I can jump on the bed if I want! Its so great and we have a shower A SHOWER I LOVE SHOWERS! We love the T@B, but after living in it for three months, I REALLY love hotel rooms - which Ive seen only a handful of times on this journey.
Oh right, I forgot the part about San Diego - after I showered, we didnt leave the hotel room until 2:30pm. Sure the day can go until 10pm or longer, but seriously, once it gets dark the day is OVER for me. Its some kind of annoying psychology that I have in my brain that tells me there is NO WAY I can enjoy the day when there is no sun. This is not always true, but when youre in San Diego and you want to spend the whole day in 90º weather on your birthday and it doesnt happen, disappointment sets in. But we made the best of it - we went to a dog BEACH (not park), Mister met a very good looking chihuahua named Meeko (sp?) who liked Mister more than Mister liked him. Mister was a bad boy most of the time and kept running away to go meet/hump other dogs. Then we drove around for an hour and a half looking for something to do and found not much at all. We spent WAY TOO MUCH MONEY on an absolutely delicious Italian dinner, which I am afraid I will have to do every year on my birthday thanks to the Italian (really Italian, we were on Florence) dinner Kaity Creasy treated me to last year in celebration of my birthday. Then it was back to the hotel room where Mark gave me a superb massage until I passed out.
I still have no idea what San Diego is like. We have a set schedule for the rest of our road trip (I know, BOOOO! But we have so much to see in less than a month!) and so I think we might not actually get to see much of San Diego until next time. 23 was an excellent year in my life, 24 should be pretty good too.
Also, Kate (Ms. Dawes) sent us this video from the Wanderkids. Thank you Wanderkids!!.

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Now all you have to do is cut out the outer and inner circles and you have a cool open-circle design to stitch and use on a card or layout. My finished project is below. To make it come together smoothly, I lightly taped my circle to the card in two small places, then pierced the holes through the card so I could stitch through everything. That makes it look flatter; if you want it to stand up a little higher, stitch first, then adhere the stitched circle to the project. Before stitching, I laid my ribbon down (note that one side is under and one side is over the circle) and taped it lightly in place on the back side. Then I stitched, bowed, and layered. A little edge-inking would've made the layers stand out even more than they do now, but I think this gives you a good idea of the technique.
Enjoy.

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Ok, so continuing from yesterday....(WARNING: I'm a little winded here) So I went to the auction site(they even brought in a refreshment stand can you believe it!) and cased the joint. After walking around and getting the feel for everything, I got me a number and first up for auction was an old flag. So distressed and cool looking - I will probably hang it on the wall in my living room. ($2) I walked through the house and found this pristine suitcase, so I brought it out for them to auction and won....a steal $1! Then on a mission at this point, I went back through the house (I'm hooked now!) I found a pile of books and things in one of the bedroom closets and found a box of old letters and some post cards. I asked the person who was overseeing the auction (must have been a relative or friend) and she said "why would you want old letters and such"....she said I could have them - 1919-1920 letters and envelopes with stamps! I also ran into a woman who won a lot of paper items that were sprawled out over the auction table when I came back outside. I asked about them and to my surprise, she said she was opening an antique store in town. She welcomed me to stop by and go thru the box. That story later! I had to limit myself - I only had $20 on me and one a van to haul stuff home. Gee, I wish I had a pickup at that point. After most of the other items were auctioned, the auctioneer walked everyone thru the house to see what else could be had. We made it to the basement where I won a washtub $2, old chair $2, and a few clip on lights $1 $2! They had an old Hoosier cupboard and it went for $15! (this is when I needed a pickup truck- geese!!) and an old drop leaf table $10! So it was getting later and we went through the whole basement. Then we all got in line to pay for our purchases and I noticed they were giving stuff away that wasn't auctioned off...hmmmmm. (it pays to pay attention!) So the nosey person I am, went back inside. There in the living room was a pile - pile for the trash that no one wanted! From this "pile" I was able to take an old makeup hard case, and a VCR. (Our VCR at the cottage broke so I figured maybe it would work). Then not seeing anything else, I was walking down the front steps and this man called out, "Here, I found this one too, it might just work. If not, nothing lost - right?" So I got 2 VCRs and a makeup case FREE!!! All in all I spent $10 - I LOVE AUCTIONS!!! I can't wait to go to another one!!.

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Hi everyone....I am sooo tired and sore!!! We walked for 2 days solid and had such a wonderful time!! If you like antiques, Round Top is the place to go. Two weeks at the end of March and first of April in the spring and 2 weeks in October each year antique venders come from all over the country. We went to 3 little towns and they were all filled with hundreds of tents, buildings, and warehouses full of stuff!!! I went with 3 friends and we stayed at the cutest Bed and Breakfast called the Pecan Grove Inn in Carmine, Texas. They had great rooms in a turn of the century restored house and the breakfast was FABULOUS!!! If you ever want to visit Texas and love antiques, make you plans with Round Top in mind!! Be sure to wear good shoes and bring lots of money!!! I bought an Eastlake rocker that we couldn't get in Linda's SUV so we will have to go to the ladies antique shop in Austin to pick it up...oh, darn...heehee!!! Did I plan that right or what!!?!! Thanks for visiting and I will get some stamping done tomorrow!.

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Stop on over at :

http://stardustgemsandribbon.wordpress.com/

she is having a spooky treat.. I just adore Halloween and I wish it did last a tad longer I think I shall start this year making cards for next year *smiles*

here is what she posted about her candy...

"Well, my blog candy is way overdue. I dont have any specific numbers/facts or figures to give to you, that doesnt really interest meI just know that I get so many wonderful people visiting my blog each day who leave me such encouraging comments, that I have decided to give away this candy. We all have such busy lives these dayss so easy not to bother commenting, but thanks to everyone that finds the time to leave me comments, I do appreciate it..and so this is my thank you for just that..GOOD LUCK to everyone that takes part and I will ship the prize worldwide.
The prize includes
A brand new ( still in sealed packet) Magnolia Tilda in cherry dress stamp, 66 Papermania Naughty and Nice paper pack, Papermania sparkly trims, brads, StarDust glitter, paper tags and two sheets of bazzill cardstock.

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Well I am having so much fun with my Stampin' glitter, that I decided to make another card using the technique. I fell in love with the stamp set Baroque Motifs (page 98) in the new catalogue. This is a 'case' of the sample card displayed in the catalogue. I have changed the colours, deciding on certainly celery, pale plum perfect plum for my card. I have stamped the large flowers in pale plum onto white cardstock, and then used the smaller flower from the set and stamped inside with perfect plum. I have then cut flowers out and the flowers have been covered with Stampin' glitter (see previous post for instructions). The swirl pattern has been stamped with certainly celery ink. The flowers have then been adhered using Stampin' dimensionals. I have used silver brads for the centre of the flowers. To finish off, I have added a strip of pale plum cardstock white grosgrain ribbon to the side of the card. I have stamped the sentiment in perfect plum onto white cardstock and then mounted onto perfect plum cardstock. Let me know what you think.

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Its hard to believe that my baby is 15 years old today. Time seems to go so fast, especially when youre not paying attention! My little chicklette has blossomed into the most beautiful butterfly, thus she was my inspiration for her birthday card.
I didnt want to use a lot of background stamps or papers, but I did want texture so I used the TP technique from Leslie Millers wonderful blog Running With Scissors. Of course, we are running low on TP because I forgot to pick some up from the HEB store so I had to improvise with a cotton round. Its like a cotton ball, except its flat and round like a silver dollar. It did the trick. I scrunched the cotton round up and loaded it up with the Apricot Appeal ink then pounced it on the Apricot Appeal cardstock until it had a nice sueded look. I wish you could see it in the picture. I sponged Apricot Appeal around the edges of the cardstock, stamped the butterfly outline from Sweet Sassy in Pumpkin Pie ink across the bottom of the panel and stamped Happy Birthday! in Basic Black.
I used the same TP technique on the green panel using Certainly Celery and sponged around the edges. I stamped the Lavendar Lace panel repeatedly with the Fluttering Butterflies from Beyond the Basics in Lavendar Lace and sponged the edges.
I stamped the Daisy outline stamp three times on White cardstock then used a template to draw a frame around each flower with a black fine point pen and went over that with a basic black marker. I colored them in using StampinUp! markers in Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery and Lavendar Lace.
I put a little tape on the layers to hold them down while I sewed them together.
Last I stamped the Butterfly outline from Sweet Sassy three times on White cardstock and colored them using my aquapainter and Apricot Appeal and Lavendar Lace reinkers. Then I cut them out and used glue dots on the bodies to put them together. The bottom butterfly is glued down by the wings.
Heres the supply list:
Stamps: Petal Prints, Sweet Sassy, Beyond the Basics, Friend to Friend
Paper: White, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Lavendar Lace
Ink: Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Markers; Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Lavendar Lace, Basic Black, Aquapainter, SU! Reinkers Apricot Appeal and Lavendar Lace, Michaels Dotted ribbon, Fine Point Black Pen
Thanks for stopping by.

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It's a sad day in our household, as Joseph has reached the end of his cub-scout days. He has adored attending the weekly meetings, and he has gained alot from going. He doesn't want to go up to the (not so well organised) scout group, so we will have to find something else for him to go to.

The cubs Akela is just wonderful. She is so caring and warm towards the children in her care, but strict when necessary. A perfect leader and fully respected by all. We bought a little present as a way of saying thank you, and I have spent the (very hot) afternoon making a card.

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Criminal Minds: I wanted to take a moment and update everyone on the status of the first Criminal Minds convention tentatively scheduled for the end of June or first week in July. Because Criminal Minds fans live all over the globe it has been impossible to find a month that will please everyone based on the overwhelming emails of interest we have received. A very small committee, representing various Criminal Minds groups, is traveling to LA the last week in Feb. to book a hotel and to plan an itinerary based on the meeting rooms we find and the tourist attractions that we find that meet the limited financial budget that several people have asked us to be sensitive to. Ed Bernero, the Executive Producer of Criminal Minds, will be popping into the convention in 2009 at some point which is exciting and several of the writers have also expressed their desire to meet the CM fans attending.

Lori, the Co-Mod of the Criminal Minds Conversation Yahoo group, Debbie, moderator on the Criminal Minds Fanatic message board as well as Lee's wonderful MGG site, and Phoenix, moderator on the CMF message board are working hard to pre-plan as much as they can before our Feb visit. For more info please feel free to email them at loripppls@msn.com or Spymama6863@gmail.com

Now let me answer some of the generic questions I have had emailed to me: No, you do not need to be a member of the Criminal Minds Fanatic message board or Yahoo group to attend the convention. You just need to want to attend! Yes, we realize that those of you traveling from Europe and beyond will want to stay in LA for more days than the convention lasts since you are traveling so far and we are going to pick a hotel that is available for you to continue living in after/before the convention begins. Yes, we can help match you up with a roommate if you need to share a room to save money. Yes, there will probably be scholarship funds for those who may need a bit of financial help. I will know more about this at a later time. Right now the charity committee is committed to making sure that Kim Harrison is #1 in donations for her Aids Marathon but that fundraiser is over in September. The committee raising money in Rick Dunkle's name to benefit the Red Cross has a goal of $7,500 and they are about a third of the way there, so that needs to be accomplished. Criminal Minds fans are helping with the Actors Fund Assistance Fund but that won't affect our ability to raise funds. Once Kim and Rick's charities are completed we can start raising funds for those that need help. Once again our wonderful and generous friends, Allie and Maura, have pledged to help start that fund with $500 so we will need to wait and see what we can do concerning convention assistance.

You now know as much as I know.

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Hello!

I just wanted to share my new blog format with you all -- my blog makeover! Having coordinated blog banners, backgrounds and signatures is one of the latest blogging trends. Since I will soon be developing other people's blogs (hopefully yours if you don't already have one), I just had to have them and install them as soon as possible.

Can you see the new format? You should see my blog banner at the top, left and right background borders (greenish swirls), and a 2 column blog format (left column for posts and the right column is smaller for the side bar (my picture should be the first thing you see)).

If you have any trouble viewing this blog, please let me know so I can fix any problems. Let me know what platform you are using (Windows or Mac) and if you know, what web browser you are using and version, such as Internet Explorer 7.0, or 6.0, or American Online, etc. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thanks for visiting.

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